Nationwide, 5.4 million K-12 students speak limited English....Only 4 percent of eighth-grade ELLs scored at or above "proficient" in reading, compared with 32 percent of non-ELLs,.... Meanwhile, classrooms are diversifying with the speed of a spinning globe: 25 states saw the number of ELLs more than double from 1993 to 2003. "It's extremely important, as we see a fast-growing population of ELL students, that we adapt to their needs and give them the tools so they can be a success," says Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, which advocates for at-risk students. "What we're all beginning to appreciate is ... if this student drops out of high school, there are going to be immediate costs to all of us."

The state of Missouri could save $245 million in lifetime health costs by decreasing high school dropout rates among the current senior class, according to conservative calculations by the Alliance for Excellent Education. In a recent brief titled “Healthier and Wealthier: Decreasing Health Care Costs by Increasing Educational Attainment,” the alliance worked on the basis that health care costs are highest for the least educated, and calculated state savings by combining the lifetime costs of Medicaid and expenditures for uninsured care, and multiplied the total by the number of students who drop out of Missouri high schools.

In today's workplace, only 40 percent of adults who dropped out of high school are employed, compared with 60 percent of adults who completed high school, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education....The majority — 70 percent — of the people entering our nation's prisons are high school dropouts, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education.

...not all see raising the compulsory education age as the best solution to keeping kids in school. Rafael Heller, senior policy associate at the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C.-based research and policy organization, said the goal behind the idea is a good one but a change in law "is not the silver bullet." The quality of the school environment is more likely to keep kids in school than the law, he said. The law is generally little known among students and their parents and little followed. "Kids are not going to drop out and they are not going to be attracted by youth gangs if they are engaged and motivated to go to school," Heller said.

The Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that focuses on improving high schools, is planning to come out with a comprehensive set of recommendations for NCLB reauthorization in mid-February. Bethany Little, the group’s vice president for policy and federal advocacy, said the group is likely to call for a comprehensive federal fund for improving high schools, because many high schools do not receive federal Title I money. The proposals are also likely to address accountability; teacher quality and effectiveness; uniform academic standards aligned with assessments and coursework; community and parent involvement; and issues related to college access and preparation.

A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education contends that states would save a nationally aggregated average of $13,706 per student if every student slated to graduate as part of the Class of 2006 actually did so. The dollar figure represents savings of state money spent on Medicaid and medical costs for uninsured individuals. Projected out over the lifetimes (through age 65, when recipients become eligible for Medicare) of an estimated 1.2 million dropouts among current high school students, states could save a combined $17 billion if the students graduated instead.

Aware that health care costs are highest for the least educated, the Alliance for Excellent Education calculated state savings by combining the lifetime costs of Medicaid and expenditures for uninsured care, then multiplying this total by the number of students who drop out of South Carolina’s high schools. If these students were to graduate instead, the state would realize a significant benefit....Healthier and Wealthier argues that higher educational attainment improves a student’s future income, occupational status and social prestige, all of which contributes to improved individual health.

Ohio could save money in health-care costs if more students graduated from high school, a new report says. If every high-school senior graduated in 2006, the state could save $502 million in lifetime health costs, according to figures by the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report, called "Healthier and Wealthier: Decreasing Health Care Costs by Increasing Educational Attainment," was funded by the MetLife Foundation.

Dropout prevention starts at the beginning of a student's disinterest, redirecting his efforts and tapping into his potential. "You're targeting those students, you're figuring out exactly what they need, you're doing everything they need to keep them engaged," Lyndsay Pinkus, a policy associate at the Alliance for Excellent Education,...

The average high school dropout costs Colorado $16,000 in extra taxpayer supported health care over the course of his or her lifetime, mostly in extra Medicaid costs, said the report funded by the MetLife Foundation, the charity arm of the health insurer. The report was put together by the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that works to decrease the dropout rate.